Marco Rubio's risky gamble

The New York Times had a fascinating look this past weekend at the three Republican senators who are blocking the U.S. Senate's ability to move forward with budget negotiations. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio are the young senators standing in the way of all of Congress negotiating the outlines of Paul Ryan’s conservative fiscal blueprint.

After rightly criticizing Harry Reid’s Democratic Senate for refusing to pass a budget over the past four years, Republicans now find that the obstructionists keeping conference committee members from digging into the Ryan budget are on their own side of the aisle. The three's budget brinkmanship has shut down all deliberations and angered conservative and moderate Republicans alike.

The radical move is safe politics for Texas’ Cruz and Utah’s Lee since both won races against the Republican establishment and owe Senate leaders little. Marco Rubio also challenged the GOP power brokers in his primary race against Charlie Crist, but unlike Utah and Texas, Rubio's Florida went for Barack Obama twice and has a Democrat in the U.S. Senate.

Presidential politics seem to play into more and more of Rubio's moves these days but with his push to the far right on several issues lately, Marco Rubio risks being more popular with caucus-goers in Western Iowa than with general election voters in his own home state.